The Jointown Mercenaries

 This adventure was originally made as a direct sequel to this adventure, but does not necessarily require the party to play the previous scenario.

The Setup

    After discovering that an army of kobolds is going to descend upon the town of Polip, the players have been asked to go one day downriver. There, over the point where the Slimewater River meets its first major tributary, is Jointown. Jointown is built up on stilts and boardwalks and marks the end of the navigable portion of the Slimewater River, making most of its money by charging for the use of the docks. That is starting to change as the new mayor, Martin Quimbly, has decided to start marketing Jointown as a tourist destination with easy access to the Little Ooze Valley and a lively entertainment district. It is popular with mercenaries from the wars in the flatter lands south of the Cephalus Mountains.

    Upon arriving in town, the players will find that the mercenaries tend to hang out in a bar called the Three Rocks Inn, run by a red-haired gnome named Fuoco who seems to be eternally stressed out by her rowdy clientele. Upon arriving at the bar, the party will find the banners of four different mercenary companies in the four corners of the room. 

ignore the checks and the x, those are notes from when I ran this

The Complication

    These mercenaries are used to being hired out by kings and generals so it is unlikely the party can afford to hire them with gold. The mercenaries are on vacation and are looking more to spend gold than earn it as well. This means that if the party wants any of the mercenaries to help them fight the kobolds, they will probably have to get on their good sides. To get one of the mercenary leaders willing to help the party, they'll need to either give or guarantee the future giving of at least two of the things that the leader in question wants, as written under their name in the above image.

    On top of all of this, none of the companies have enough soldiers to stand up to the kobold army alone, so the party is going to have to figure out how to get two different leaders on their side. The leaders have their own friendships and rivalries, some even want each other dead, so they will have to figure out which leaders are both compatible and want things the party is willing to get for them.

    The mercenaries seem to split their time between drinking at the inn and sleeping on their docked rafts, so it is fairly easy to track them down at their most vulnerable. It is also worth noting that murder is illegal in Jointown so the party is going to have to get around that as well, depending on the choices they make.

Running Notes

    When I ran this for one of my groups, they seemed to key into the fact that I made two of the leaders much nicer than the other two, and that I made the two nice leaders start out as friends. Erik and Amelia are certainly the most harmonious pairing of the 6 possible combinations. We had a great time roleplaying for this adventure, and it ended with the murder of one of the mercenary leaders. As a result, the party is still wanted for questioning in Jointown and what's left of Tony's mercenary company wants to have them killed. Definitely one of the better endings that a quest can have. There's also an optional encounter table I made for the upper Slimewater Watershed.

it's a 2d6 table, since I forgot to write that on the page